My name is Gulnaz and I am a Uyghur Muslim

My name is Gulnaz and I am a Uyghur
Muslim. My place of birth is East Turkestan but the world knows it as
Xinjiang because China says so. When I was a child, entering my teenage,
an eleven year old, my family flea “Xinjiang” and till then I had seen
enough. Till then an 11 yr old girl had seen enough to understand that
she was not safe in China. Today my age is 23 yrs and even after so many
years, Xinjiang still Haunts me.

I remember being not allowed to attend
school because I had to work in fields with my father. Sometimes I would
work alone if my father was unwell. My little hands weren’t able to
help much but I had no choice. I remember the eyes of Chinese guards
looking at us in the market , it made me feel like I belong to a
different planet which is disliked by them. This happened only because
we were Uyghurs and Muslims. One Night, they stormed our house ,
checking every nook and corner. My mother hide me in the basement , gave
me a little bottle with liquid in it and instructed me to drink it if
an officer tries to touch me. Thankfully, nothing happened and we were
told that these are normal search operations. But soon a horrific
incident followed which forced us to flea the country.

One of my aunts in neighborhood was
pregnant with her second child and her family was planning to send her
away as Uyghurs weren’t allowed to have a second child. Somehow the
Chinese officials came to know about my aunt and they forced her for
abortion. In a dingy hospital room, one night, she died. Patime was 6
months pregnant and doctors operated her while risking her life.

This incident shocked my family and my
father decided to leave China. We immediately fled to Turkey but kept
changing places, sometimes countries, every two years or so.

All this time we kept hearing news about
China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, Urumqi Massacre, demolishing mosques,
arresting innocents and about their raids to find Uyghurs living abroad
too. My father warned us to never reveal our Uyghur identities and
refrained from teaching us about the Uyghur culture too. The terrifying
news of Thailand detaining 300 Uyghurs and sending them back to China
instilled fear in us again. The fact that no protests or hunger strikes
by detained Uyghurs could save them made it clear that once China finds
about our family then we will be punished too.

Despite of all the hardships we faced,
My father never compromised with our education and he made sure that we
got a good schooling. He thinks that only good education can lead us out
of this path of slavery or fear. Today, he wants me to become a teacher
so that I can contribute in making our world a better place for
everyone. Although, I think that I am an activist from inside and
whenever I listen or come across a news of Injustice , my blood boils
and I become determined to do something. Our world has been seen as
divided between First World and Third World countries but Uyghurs aren’t
given place in any of those spheres. We are people living in a fourth
country which has been left to suffer by the world leaders but Why?
Aren’t Uyghurs Human beings too? So few years back, the Uyghur in me
took over and I made my account on Twitter(@iamgul8).

Here I try to talk with as many people
as I can to convey the struggle of Uyghurs in China. Why should we
suffer just because we are Uyghurs or Muslims? What is our crime? Out of
many people I contacted , some of them always asked about my story, so
this is for them. But I can’t tell anything else because that can leave
my family in trouble.

After this story, my chances of being
chased by Chinese officials are increased and I may go silent . But our
story is important . The world has long enough ignored Uyghurs and now
they have to stand with us. Like many Uyghurs another Gulnaz may get
abducted,tortured or killed but her fight, our fight against injustice
must be continued by someone and it has to be you!